The preparations for the Student Council elections were the main concern for all candidates, but the moment everything was done – the hassle the entire school has experienced abruptly stopped.

After a week of rest, the elections began with the promotion. However, unlike the preparations period it was all about sticking posters everywhere. The only event that would have any visible activity was the debates.

And it was my time to shine.

Instead of our beloved lunch break, the entire school was herded into the gym. Us, the candidates and our loyal (or not) teams got here first, and we were sat on the stage, waiting for everybody to gather. In total there were 10 people, only 3 of which had actual chances of winning the elections. The handsome head of the home economics club, the not-handsome but beautiful me, and the neither handsome nor beautiful Nakayama-san.

We had a mere hour for the debates and the speeches, but almost half of that time was required simply to gather everyone.

At the director’s signal I stood up and approached the microphone.

“Dear students, thank you for gathering. I am the Student Council president Minohara Yuki, and today we will be holding the debates for the candidates running for the post of the next Council president. Now, let me present you the candidates…” Just like many things in the Student Council, everybody expects that the president was the second-year student, and thus has no use of being among the candidates. Me being the special case, I had to read my own name as one of the candidates. And then listen to the ‘excited’ applause to the candidates as being one.

I am also the moderator, the spectator, the participant, and I am even the console operator. Again, I was not expected to be here as a candidate. Not that it would affect my desire to win.

Not after we spent an entire month as the free labor force…

“Let us hear the candidates’ speeches. The time limit is 3 minutes. Sorry, but otherwise we would run out of time.

To allow the candidates to make corrections to their speeches, the first speech shall be delivered by Minohara Yuki-san, the second-year from class 2-1.” Again, me being the special case is quite awkward.

I flicked a switch inside, and changed my official ‘tyrant ice-cold president’ tone to the cheerful and amiable tone of the candidate.

“… My next term will be focused on further improving of the accounting practices of the clubs, to avoid unfair distribution of the school funds and to give more opportunities to the new clubs. Also we shall continue working on the current agenda of quality-of-life improvements that we introduced the last December. Being the acting Student Council president, I have already shown you what I and my team are capable of, and the majority of my promises are based on the current requirements of the school. I hope that the elections shall be fair and that the next president will work hard on improving the lives of my fellow students. With this said, I shall work hard as the president, the fellow student, and the part of the Queen’s Clique. Everybody, let us do our best together!” When I was done, I did a slight bow and flicked the imaginary switch back.

I felt super awkward thinking about the need to say ‘Thank you, Minohara-san’, so I just omitted this required part.

“Let us proceed to the next candidate.”

The speeches were delivered one by one, and we (the SC) had to gesture to the candidates that their time is running out. With the last speech being finished I was about to announce that we are done for today, because we ran out of time, but then the director stood up and waved at me that he will say something.

“Here you go.”

“Khm! Khm! Dear students, due to the technical reasons we couldn’t make everything happen in one hour, and thus it was decided that to hold the elections event, there will be no more lessons today. YES! YES! ... REVEL LATER! ... SILENCE! PLEASE!” The gym filled with shouting of the happy students, and even the director and the microphone couldn’t do anything against it.

‘Sir…’ I grabbed the microphone.

“KHE-KHE. CLASS SENIORS, PLEASE RESTORE THE DISCIPLINE OF YOUR CLASSES.”

I shouted so loudly, that even the microphone couldn’t handle it, filling the gym with deafening sounds.

Somehow I shouted down everyone.

When the shouting was somewhat stopped and we were just dealing with the students being overly agitated by the sudden happiness, I simply fixed my glasses and looked over the gym.

One time was enough to restore everything to the complete silence.